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Looking ahead to winter sports

With a frosted over football field, volleyball nets replaced with basketball hoops, and boys in the pool, you know it’s time for winter sports: basketball, wrestling, boys swimming, and bowling.

Boys swimming season started on Nov. 1 and have been hitting the pool early in the morning and after school.

After losing many seniors last year the team has become smaller but it hasn’t become less talented.

“I think the team will be good, but we have to push ourselves harder because we lost a lot of seniors,” Ethan Clarke said.

The team's had their first meet on Dec. 2 against Davenport North. The boys shut out North in the meet, winning every event with a score of 130-24.

“ It felt good to win. We all bonded as a team and motivated each other to swim faster and win our races,” Ben Luppen said.

The team hits the pool two times a day some days; they come in the morning before school and after school.

“Working hard in practice and waking up on those early mornings to lift and get better led to our win against North,” Charlie Bunn said.

The team works hard, and they have help from to coaches to motivate them.

“I like the coaching and how they push us to get better and try harder,” Clarke said.

The boys start their season 1-0 and plan continuing to do well.

“We are trying to get first in state so I think we will do pretty well this season,” Bunn said.

The girls basketball season started on Nov. 7 with a new coaching staff. The head coach is Brian Tritt, Scott Lammer is the assistant coach, and Megan Hayes, the assistant to the assistant coach.

“Coach Tritt was here last year, so we all knew him, Coach Lammers is a blast from the past because he used to coach the girls team, and Coach Hayes is a great new face. We haven’t had a post player as a coach in awhile, which helps the team a lot. All the coaches have different experiences and different strategies, but they compromise to make one good plan that works well for the team,” Erin Hatch said.

The team lost many seniors last year but luckily some of the key players were juniors and sophomores.

“The team is young, quick, and athletic but we also have experience,” Emily Ivory said.

The team’s first game was on Nov. 26 vs Cedar Rapid Jefferson. It was close most of the game. The team had the lead in the end which made Jefferson foul to stop the clock, Ivory and Grace Erpelding made their free throws and were also the leading scorers. Ivory had 23 points and Erpelding with 12 points with the win, 61-54.

The team had their second game on Dec. 2 against West.

The boys basketball season started on Nov. 14 with some returning key players, The boys look to have a good season this year. “I think we will do great. I have confidence in my team. We have a lot of returning players, some good juniors, and one good sophomore,” JMichael Young said.

The team had their first game on Dec. 1 against Cedar Rapids Washington, the game went well for the bulldogs winning the game 67-50. The team was led by Suni Lane with 15 points,8 rebounds and Mark Kallenberger with 12 points, 11 rebounds.

“I’m very optimistic. I believe we can be as good as we want to be. The sky is the limit,” head coach Curtis Clark said.

The boy’s start their season with a win and a 1-0 record.

Wrestling started the season on Nov. 14 with a lot of new faces for varsity. The team lost key seniors last season.

“The team is young and works very hard. It’s probably the youngest team we’ve ever had but that’s not a bad thing,” head coach Dan Knight said.

The team's first tournament is the Keith Young tournament in Cedar Falls on Dec. 3.

“It will give us the extra push we need to work hard in practice and show us our weaknesses and what we need to work on,” Damon Tingle said.

The boys are working hard in the weight room and on the mat to get ready for their first tournament.

“We have solid wrestlers throughout the weights that are working to get better and working hard,” Mason Morris said.

The team has a long road ahead of them this season with many new wrestlers who are still trying to get used to what varsity wrestling is like.

“We should be very competitive in the MAC and have some individuals that can do very good at the state level,” Knight said.

Girls bowling has started its new season after losing many good seniors from last year. The team made it to state last year and plans to make it back there again this season.

“Last season we made it to state; this year will be a challenge now that our seniors are gone, but we should still be pretty good,” Kayla Vance said.

The team had its first meet on Nov. 28, but the meet didn’t go as planned. However, bowlers know there is still a full season ahead.

“We lost; we have some stuff to work on, but we need to clear our minds of that and be ready for our meet on Monday,” Eleanor Drexler said.

Katie Lindaman was the top scorer for Bettendorf at the meet.

“I feel like if we practice a lot and work well together we could be good. It’s a little hard losing the seniors,” Courtney Ritter said.

The team may not have started the season how they wanted, but they plan to keep their heads up.

Boys bowling also started a new season after losing some seniors and the one senior who made it to state last year.

“We have decent talent coming up in the lower grades, so we should do okay,” Brock Cary said.

The boys bowling team also had their first meet on Nov. 28 in which the boys won against West, with Jordan Czubara leading the team with 700+ points.

“It felt great to win, because 30 Lanes is a different alley; it has more oil than we are used to,” Kyle Kent said.

The team did well in the first meet, and they still have plenty more to go.

“We are going to be okay this year; some players got cut that shouldn’t have been, so we won’t be to our full potential,” Clay Skahill said.